Living Room Makeover Reveal

Its.about.dang.time. That is ALL I have to say about this. This little makeover has taken me seemingly forever but it is DONE (for at least a few weeks…).

The starting point for my room designs aren’t the typical fabric swatches or pinterest boards. When I design a room the first thing I envision is how I want that room to FEEL when you walk into it. When you come into my house I want you to feel happy. Not just “oh I am happy to be away from my kids for 5 minutes” but the kind of happy that you are like “Man. There is something special about that place. Its like Disneyland but thriftier.” I want our house to feel comfortable and interesting and inspiring. So that is what I started with. Happy, comfortable, interesting, and inspiring, and of course my favorite feeling in the world, fearless. So as you are looking at this new room I hope these are the words that come to mind.

For those that are newish (welcome!) Court and I bought our house 3.5 years ago. It was a short sale that had been thrashed. Here are the MLS listing pictures…please enjoy.

Doesn’t that carpet make you want to get a tetanus shot? BLECH. But I loved it the second we walked in. (Please keep in mind this was a year before I started the blog and had ever tried to decorate anything…)

I found this picture last week of a Rockband Christmas Party that we were having about 5 months after we moved in.

Obviously we installed hardwood and repainted but that was about the extend of the fun.

Then after living room makeover #1 it looked like this:

Tons of work, tons learned, and I outgrew it really quickly. It was great, but I wanted it to be lighter and brighter and funner. I was sick of gray and white and yellow.

So this is what it looks like now.

I mean. Literally not the same house, except that it is. The original theme my friends coined was Santa Fe Brothel, because of the plans for Southwest+Gold+Velvet Couch. While the room has nods at Southwest happiness, its not as overwhelmingly ethnic as originally planned. And I am 100% ok with that.

It started out with the Orange Velvet Couch. After someone stole the Navy Chesterfield right out from under my Craiglisting nose, I knew I NEEDED something that was show stopping. One of my friends was selling it and I was happy to pay $300 to take it off her hands. The pillows are from Homegoods and Target.

I found the coffee table at Homegoods on major clearance for $50. All the knickknacks are thrifted or from Homegoods.

I went out on a limb with the giant heart string art but without it the room would absolutely not be the same. The other pictures are thrifted or custom (which we will be talking about soon!)

And of course the base for the entire thing is the Sharpie Wallpaper. It brings just the right amount of metallic in.

Miss Vicki the vintage Victrola stereo cabinet was thrifted and updated here and then updated again here.

I think this is the first time I have shown you guys a shot that shows my living room and my entryway.

Here is a picture looking into the Kitchen. I just painted the walls black and LOVE it (and I cant wait to share the tutorials for that space with you soon!!)

I moved the openwork cube pendant out of Dylan’s room and into the living room because I love it JUST that much. It needed to be shown off.

Everything on these awesome shelves are thrifted, gifted, or lifted…and by lifted I mean stolen with permission from my Mother In Law. Literally everything except the Love Your Guts gold leaf art. If I had to add it up I would say the entire vignette cost this girl around $75. Not too shabby.

The floating shelf on the opposite side of the room is full of thrifted goodness as well. The art and the pink antler sheds are my favorites.

The desk was a Homegoods score that went against everything I believe in, but it is PERFECT right there. And I still cant believe that I found that huge map for $12.

So now I am going to shut up and just show you some more eye candy ok? Be right back.

I am in love with the entire thing so much the only way to describe it is with a big ol’ sigh.

I love that it feels collected, because it is.

I love that it feels like me, because it is.

I love that there will never be another room like this on the planet because everything was found and not just purchased.

It has taken me 2.5 years of decorating and writing almost every day to find a style that is MINE. And I wouldn’t change it for the world. Do I cringe when I see some of my old projects? Yes siree bob I do. But at the time they were perfect, because they made me comfortable with evolution.

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146 Comments

Hi Mandi,I have been your reader a long time but have never commented before but now I feel the urge to do so because I really love your new style! It’s very much like my own style and taste and different from the most blogs around. Keep it up -From scandinavia with love-

I love it. It really seems like it would just make you happy to enter that room. Your personal style is evident in every aspect of your living room. All of your hard work and patience has paid off, because it is a really beautiful room. I must have missed your post on the card catalog. Card catalog and cobalt blue? I am so jealous. One day I will find one that doesn’t come from One Kings Lane and I don’t have to pay $600 for (their pieces are so ridiculously overpriced, but oh so beautiful). That is my favorite piece in the room. Great job Mandi!

Oh Mandi, it is STUNNING! I currently hate how I have made over some parts of my house too, but we’re hoping to sell it very soon, so I am putting plans on hold for now. This is perfect. It is funny how style totally evolves.

OMG Mandie! You have so outdone yourself with this reveal. This is one of those posts that I will sit with, pore over, admire and absorb for years to come. Seriously. It’s that awesome. Oh, and your couch makes me cry. In a good way.

Mandi – I’ve been reading your blog pretty much since the beginning – it’s amazing to see how far you’ve come over the years. I feel like I’ve grown with you in a lot of ways too – I absolutely loved how your first living room was set up (I think your zebra rug was one of my favorite projects a few years ago and if I wasn’t in a rental I would’ve stenciled my heart out the way you did back then) but at the same time – I love this room so much MORE I kinda cringe with you looking back at the old pics (no offense!!) I have been thinking about how you’ve found YOUR STYLE and how it has evolved over the years and I just think it’s amazing to watch it all unfold. I’m currently obsessing over your marker walls (I’m still in the damn rental so I can’t do too much) but I’m finally taking the time to upgrade my living room in small ways so it feels more like ME. Thank you for finally revealing this room from every angle – you should be proud of yourself!! It has come a long way and it really is magazine worthy. Love every inch of it!

I LOVE the makover!! It looks so fresh and inviting. And honestly, I don’t know which part I like best??? Your such an inspiration with your unique ideas. And thanks for linking up the projects, cause you know everyone would be looking for them!

LOVE IT, love the loft feel and natural elements the most (even though I’m not good at using them!). Excellent job, and the black window trim and kitchen paint really makes it for me! PS – it’s great to show your transformation in “real time” so the rest of us feel better about our makeovers taking months!Trishhttp://www.mash-upchic.blogspot.com

Vote is done and I see you are on teh loead Woo-woo! I love everything you do and you inspire me so so so much! Thank you for your blog and the time you spent doing it! You are an inpiration to many! Keep your chin up and keep being awesome!

My favorite view is definitely the one looking toward the windows with the new black trim and those awesome shelves–and into the black wall in the kitchen with that purple rug. That, my friend, is the money shot.

I looks fantastic! I just have to ask, though, how do you keep it nice with all those knicknacks and your kids in the same house? Like the lightbulbs in the bowl – those would have been smashed in the time it took me to close the bathroom door at my house. I have boys, though, so maybe that’s the difference!

Long time reader, first time commenter. You did a great job! It is welcoming, fun, creative, happy and a place that is special just like you wanted. Just the kind of place I would love to just sit and be happy in (for 5 minutes away from my kids.) Well done! PS. The string art is killer.Sweetpea’s Mom

I spotted a DIY chandy above the kitchen table… I suspect that will be a post? The room makeover is amazing, as always from Mandi! I’m going to try the shelves, someday. Love the industrial style mixed in.

LOVE IT!!! It’s beautiful, fun and homey. :)I have been a fan ever since you were on The Nate Show and I have loved watching your style evolve. You have helped me find my own quirky style and shown me its okay to be fabulously thrifty, creative, and colorful! I appreciate you, your style and your honesty. Love you Mandi!

I love it, and I have to say you must be an awesome Mama. I would NEVER be brave enough to have that much glass with my hooligans they aren’t well behaved enough. Dreaming of sharpie redo’s in my house, that’s about my budget right now. Thanks for the great ideas.

Mandi, you have out done yourself–again!!! Everything in that room is fantastic–and so “one of a kind”! Really great job! There are so many great projects that I don’t know if I could pick a favorite, but I am really crushing on your “mantle”!

You have amazing talent!! I love how light and bright it is, and especially that, as you say, it is so you. Exactly what I want my house to (eventually) say about me. Right now it is about half me/half 90 year old lady(previous owner). You give me hope with those before photos from the MLS listing because we are planning to sell our current house and find something larger for our growing family and most everything that we see is in our budget is awful looking!! I love how you have transformed the house from an ugly duckling to a swan. Thanks again for the inspiration!!Liz

So very inspiring! I love your room and it does make me happy! I hope to find my own style, because I am still very new to this world, but you make my think that someday I may…Thanks Mandi, and I think the floating shelves are may favorite project! I LOVE them!

Your living room looks fantastic! I’ve been working on the same sort of style change in my living room. I’ve been collecting for over a year and am just starting to slowly piece it all together. It’s amazing to finally see it all coming together! Congrats on a fantastically unique room!

this looks so so great! i love the evolution. i love both rooms (your prior gray room), but this one feels so light and bright! seriously, fabulous work!! i can’t wait to say that MY living room is done!— jackiejade.blogspot.com

Amazing job Mandy! I love that it is so homey and cozy without being too cozy..does that make sense? This room is so you and you did an amazing job making sure the space reflects that. I am sharing your awesome makeover over at My Craft Channels FB page!

I can’t believe you didn’t keep the red sheet window treatment? Your living room (and the one before) is amazing! I want to marry it. I love your style and it has evolved so beautifully. Thanks for sharing it with us. You are an inspiration!

Mandy it is perfectly you. Congrats! Funny, sometimes I feel like you are a mini-me, because you remind me so much of myself but younger. I’ve always shied away from shopping for my home because anyone can do that! I like it that the only new things I have are my mattresses and fridge!I’ve always said “anyone can shop”….

I love how open and unclcuttered it feels, even with all that cool stuff! You’ve inspired me and now I’m checking classifieds for new couches and things that are more exciting and more love in my guts! Thanks for your blog!

Amazing! I simply love that I’m not the only one that wants to change her space so bad. I’ve been stuck in this blah and boring brown color scheme for years because it’s what we had and had gotten on the cheap, and I was trying to be so grown up with my taste. I’m 33 for God sake, I want bright and lighter. I love color and wish you had of been around when I had my first apartment, I would have wanted it to look exactly like what you’ve done here. Now I’m in the process of doing away with the brown and going more neutral so I can add pops of color anytime I want. Kuddo’s to you! Feel free to come hang in out sunny AZ anytime and help a girl out ;D lol.

100% perfect in every way – you are amazing. I think you are somehow reverse copying me (you know, like when there’s a car in front of you and they keep making all the same turns you were planning to make?), because everything you do is exactly what I was just about to do. Wait, when I describe it, it sounds like I am copying you? Anyway, thank you for years of inspiration.

This is so perfect! If I had seen it randomly online I would have assumed it was a room you did because it just screams “MANDIRIFIC!!”

I also agree with you on the FEEL you want for a room. We are preparing to do a vintage kitchen. People keep asking me what it will look like. I dont know about that but I do know when you are there you will feel welcome like grandmas house and if you see a picture of the space you WILL smell pie. the end.

Amazing! I love that it is totally you! I love the idea of decorating for you and not caring what anyone else likes. That is what I did in my bedroom and it makes me smile everyday when I open my eyes. You are bursting with talent!

I love how light and bright it is! My house is currently at your rockband stage. I love how you showed us all the stages of transformation. It reminds us at the rockband stage that it is a progression and we have to start somewhere and build up over time. Thank you for sharing with us!It is very inspiring!

You do light and bright in a way that is fresh and original. You’ve got me thinking that my typical (negative) reaction to light and bright isn’t about the look/feel so much as it is about how so many of those rooms look just like every other one. I liked your original yellow/gray room, but this one is amazing. Just goes to show that no style is inherently good or bad; it’s all in the execution. Love.

Absolutely incredible! I love all of the new views and angles and seeing how the room relates to other areas of your home. And I can barely believe it is the same space as before. Your progression shots are such a great story and it is so inspiring to see how the space has transformed. You have such a gift and totally got it ALL right! Love every. last. detail. and you.

I literally took a breath of fresh air when I saw the first “after” picture. Ahhhhhhhh! This looks Design Sponge-worthy. And I know, because I have the book and I flip through it at breakfast about five times a week or whenever I need to see some pretties.

I just discovered your blog and I’m so glad I did – your house is beautiful and I love that most of the items are ridiculously inexpensive and can fit into my budget. Every time I read one of your posts, I get so inspired to do something in my own house. I’ve adapted the pattern on your Sharpie wall to a project that I’m working on now 😀

This is amazing. And I love and hate that you link back to other posts in your posts because then I end up spending an hour reading your blog. And then I realize I’ve already read a post but I keep reading it anyways because it’s so good.

I’ve been a fan for a while, this is my first comment. I love the room and I have to say my favorite thing is your use of black and how it is perfectly placed around the space. The photo where you see the black wall, window trim, the large X, carpet, pillows….anyway the point I’m trying to make is…WoW! Fantastic job!

I love your new living room. It’s very bright and colorful and very creative. Thanks for entertaining me and giving me something fun to relax to (almost) every night! And there are too many things to love in this room- the shelves, the Sharpie walls../

I really like this room. And I totally understand about ‘finding your own style.’ I feel like when I was first married, since I’d always been into decorating I should have already had an amazing sense of style. And I totally didn’t…it was awful. When I got into blogging I slowly started to realize that the style I liked was like completely opposite of the style I had. And so I’ve slowly been changing things over time, and now that I am where I am, my style is still evolving, always changing. I’m so glad I married someone who is incredibly patient with this work I do because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to stay married if he wasn’t. I think your whole house is turning out awesome. Love it all!

Love the changes the room has been through over the years! =) It is definitely a labor of love. The new design is so fresh and airy, but I also loved the one before that (not so much the original, though, ha ha!)

This is my first time reading your blog, and I am in AWE. I’m in the middle of redecorating my new home, and you’ve already inspired me a ton. Voting for you, and I already have 5 of the projects open in other tabs. Thanks for being such an inspiration!!!

The room looks great. I was worried when you said you were going for ethnic or tribal or whatever. What you ended up with is hipster chic, with some nods to ethnic tribal. I can’t even say all the things I love about it, because there are so many, but the DIY’d shelving (both sides of the room) and the black window and door frame casings are my favorite.

I also have to empathize about finding your style. I remember seeing your old room on Nate Berkus and was not a big fan, but when I saw your entry with the bike art and turquoise console, I loved it. It’s amazing how much things have changed over the past few years, from design inspiration coming only from magazines, to the plethora of design and DIY TV shows, then blogs really grew, and now Pinterest where we can share everything and get exposed to so much more. I know my own style has evolved quite a bit the past few years, and continues to change. My own living room is not quite where I want it to be yet, but I’m working on it!

I just have to ask, do you ever just look at your house and think, “Holy crap I’m awesome!” I would if I were you and here’s why. When you mentioned the whole “Southwest” style I about died and not in a good way. But this after is amazing. I actually really really love it. Like a lot! Kuddos! I would love to feature it on my blog! mymulberrytree@hotmail.com

I stumbled across your blog after a picture of your living room was pinned on Pinterest. I just wanted to write to say that the space you have created is beautiful. I love everything about it. I hope one day to create a little bit of paradise like you have. Thank you for the inspirations x

I very rarely leave comments on things that I find on pinterest. By very rarely, I mean never. I just had to this time, though. I love it that much! My husband and I bought our first house a little over a year and a half ago. It’s in a small neighborhood where every house has the same layout and design. It’s small and very builder grade, but we love it. It’s ours and we can afford it. Oh, and no carpet. We have been so busy since we moved in with painting everything and veing parents to a very bubbly toddlee that decorating has been neglected. Big time. Recently we have been thinking about decorating, but we couldn’t find our style. He’s a graphic designer and refuses to have something that would look like everyone else’s (ironic, right?). I have been trying to describe what I am envisioning for our house. This is it!

I adore your decorating creativity, spunk and bravery. This room, although not really my style, is such a perfect blend of vintage and contemporary. It’s so fresh yet still warm.I have to ask (because I love the look of antlers though only feel comfortable using those which are naturally shed) how you went about making your pink antlers look the way they do? I noticed you have said in the post that they are “antler sheds” though they look like such a perfect pair with the skull plate still attached. Did you DIY some shed antlers to look that way?

I adore your decorating creativity, spunk and bravery. This room, although not really my style, is such a perfect blend of vintage and contemporary. It’s so fresh yet still warm.I have to ask (because I love the look of antlers though only feel comfortable using those which are naturally shed) how you went about making your pink antlers look the way they do? I noticed you have said in the post that they are “antler sheds” though they look like such a perfect pair with the skull plate still attached. Did you DIY some shed antlers to look that way? Or are they in fact not really sheds?Thanks so much

Holy crap girl! This room is rockin!!! Your before to after about knocked me out of my chair. I’m on a roll redoing our house, which is really the first time I’ve “done” any of our living spaces, and I will be sucked into your blog bigtime. Your sense of style is amazing and inspiring. Keep up the good work!

I know I’m late with this fabulous makeover, but…what the heck. LOL love it, awesome, chic, vintage, modern, and of course pulling it all together creates eclectic. Your happy, that’s you. i love this space and comfy is what will all sought after in the end. Awesome! stop by and say hello!!!

Ellen 29.09.2013 at 18:21

[…] is a bubble shape and I always wish that I had more. (You can see it on the long shelf in my living room on the far right). The green glass rhino is actually a little bottle and Dylan has named him […]

Janeatte 15.11.2013 at 06:54

I cannot tell you how much I’ve been obsessed with this room (for months!). I have to ask you a question though. I am struggling with the wall my tv is on. Well, my tv is on a credenza type stand, but the problem is I don’t know what to do with the wall space above the tv or the sides. I see that you just left that whole wall blank. Don’t you just itch to put something on that wall? Currently mine is blank too. I’ve been stuck for a long time trying to figure out what to put there. After re-looking at your living room though, maybe it’s ok just to leave it blank? Is it your general rule to leave the space around a tv blank?

Jeny 11.12.2013 at 18:01

The most obvious object (at least for me) in the room has not been addressed … the glorious and wonderful light fixtures at the mantel. I may have missed the how-to somewhere. Please for the love of all things holy shed some light! Please and Thank you.

Kimberley Moore 02.07.2014 at 13:03

Sally 13.09.2014 at 23:22

I was re-watching an old friends episode and it just hit me! You have the orange couch from central perk! Love your blog and style to death too, I can’t wait to get started on my own place with all the inspiration I’ve found here

Judy H. 30.09.2014 at 21:22

Wow! I totally love your living room now! White paint really made your space looks so clean and light. Not to mention the elegance and classiness of the entire room. The pieces of furniture and décors you used are all remarkable. I am speechless with this makeover. Excellent work!